Very early--the temperature is 45. My poor sister-in-law probably froze last night. I got up early and turned on the heater for her even though we probably would not have used it yet. Hmmm...that is easy to say now that it is 6 degrees warmer inside than it was a half hour ago!

Company coming today--may not post until Sunday. We'll see how much time there is. We are hoping to take the train Friday through some of the Blue Ridge on into Tennessee. Saturday, we may go to Helen or Dahlonega. Must remember to charge the camera batteries.

WELL DONE, ME!!! Got up Monday in time to see the sunrise. We had thunderstorms and hail was predicted but by 8:30, everything was wet and drippy and very gray--except for the fall leaves which stand out like jewels.

Are these not the cutest owls? They need eyes but I think for the military, since this is my last Decatur hat, the eyes will be wool embroidery. All 24. I have 8 done at the time of this posting and the hat is finished. Picture tomorrow.

This is Berocco Pure Merino Heather, winter chocolate. It photographed a little light. I am hoping I have enough in one left over partial ball to finish this hat which is another size XL. If not, I will be cannibalizing the previous hat and then knitting down on it with some other color so I can scoop up the rest of the winter chocolate.I used 126 stitches on a size 6. I am rethinking the pattern already because I would like to sell it. That kind of scares me. I have sold baskets, dolls, pins, jewelry I made, but not knitted items or designs. Will it take the fun out of what I am doing?

One of the views from my porch...my world is so lovely right now, it is difficult to do any knitting at all in the car. I have been training myself to knit without looking at my work the best I can. Markers help me when it is time to switch stitches. My fingers are not smart enough yet to notice the difference in the stitches. Look again tomorrow to see my final hat for the USS DECATUR. I will mail out the last batch Wednesday. At last glance on Shanti's blog, her mother reported 100 hats! Some were part acrylic so they will probably be given to a mission or homeless shelter since armed services people can only have natural fibers.

Well. It looks as though I will have to start preparing ahead of time or get up earlier. Lately I have been sleeping until 10 or 10:30. I do not like it much because I feel like I have wasted half the day. I am going to try to rearrange my clock. I have been reading until very late the night before and that, no doubt, is the reason I keep missing the beautiful sunrises.

Here is a lovely morning glory. There is a house nearby and the owners have these growing at their front steps.

Is this not wonderful? I love to see cars and trucks that people have personally customized. This was in the Rite Aid parking lot Thursday. It may be hard to tell, but the whole bed and sides are in wood, with the wheel space and gasoline opening custom cut. The lettering was in shiny gold.

I think it is a copy of THIS truck, which according to the website info was in the first Smoky and the Bandit movie. It has a few seconds of film time on a Georgia fairground. Since I saw it parked only about 10 minutes west of THE fairground, I wonder if they did any filming up here or used an extras from this area. That would inspire ME to be obsessed with the movie for a long time!

This is the fourth of the Liberty Wool hats. I knit it entirely in a 2-2 rib and used Berroco Pure Merino Heather in 8613, Winter Chocolate. I know yesterday I complained about yarn that was too splitty. Well, if you have ever knit with the Berocco Pure Merino or any of its affiliates, you know the yarn is nothing but 8 lace weight strands vaguely twisted together. These are strands that love each other and cling to one another, though the yarn can be a little splitty. But it yields the absolute best knitted product. It is soft as chamois, strong, and takes color beautifully. Granted some of the Berroco superwash colors are not colors found in nature, but even I am willing to forgive them that just to get the stitch definition and comfort. One word of caution. If you try to bury your ends when changing to the next ball of yarn, do not even bother to knit 5 stitches with the two held together. Just drop the old one, knit on with the new, and come back later with a Chibi and do your best. I recommend dividing the excess yarn in half and using the Chibi in two different directions, through the yarn strands of stitches rather than under whole stitches.

Not at all satisfactory knitting. I do love knitting with the gray yarn. I do NOT AT ALL care for the red orange. It is called Rustic Wool. Do not buy any. There is not enough on one ball for a hat, it is extremely splitty, and the stitches are not beautiful and well defined. If it was not a superwash, I would felt it. Since it is, I will probably set it aside for needle felting, or find some other project that needs a little of this on a much tighter gauge.A gauge change may tighten up the stitch definition a little bit.

Finished another LibertyWool hat with my second ball of Twilight. You cansee that one is a size M. I wonder if the two people who will receive these hats will know each other? The hats look like siblings. Maybe they will make the conversation opener for a long-lasting friendship between two sailors.

Here is one in a size M. I think this color is 7897in the Sunset colorway. I knit this up quickly and use Classic Elite Liberty Wool (one ball only!) for the entire project. I don't have a size M model, so it is being modeled by an acorn squash.

I am still knitting hats and I can just about do one a dayif nothing pressing comes up. Here is the first one I didin Liberty Wool from Classic Elite. I think the color is called Twilight and is number 7898. I bought all my Liberty yarns when they were on sale but even at regular price they seem to be a good value. This one is a size XL and I wasn't sure how far the yarn would go. I used a different wool for the ribbing and ended the hat with just a few yards to spare.

What was in that box? Yarn, of course. I plan to give those Lantern Moons a real work out. Unbelievable that the top picture is of two balls of yarn in the same colorway: Sunset, by Liberty Wool. Dedicated to hats. Next, some 8 ply I picked up the other day in Ellijay at STRINGS and STITCHES. I had thought to make a hat for a young lady but I am not sure yet. I will have to think about it.Also, more hat yarn from Webs. I might be better off using the yellow for a young lady. It is Cashmerino and delightful.

At the same time I bought the luscious Lantern Moon Rosewood size double-pointed needles, I also needed size 3, 6, and 9 --all three sets for the same price of the Lantern Moons. Sometimes you just have to save money.

This was easy once I got the hang of it. I completely knit one hat, then tried to unknit it by snipping a stitch--wasn't long enough to cover the ears. Long story short, what should have been an easy undo/redo WAS NOT. It was faster to start at the beginning.

A wasp and hornet catcher? We have on averagesix wasps per day. We manage to kill most of them but there are new ones every day. This little piece of pretty glass has not caught any but we like it anyway.

Sorry, today all I have is eye-candy. These are my African violets that I used with my kaleidoscope program. I am still busy knitting hats for the USS DECATUR. I will finish a third this morning and cast on for something a little different.

Curried carrot soup last night. I think the house smells heavenly but husband does not.

This was my travel project for the past two weeks. It is two strands of SWTC Tofutsie knit rather tightly on size zeroes. I have put it aside to work on hats for the young lady, SHANTI, on the USS DECATUR

Beautiful abalone buttons on my sweater. I love the triangle shape. I sewed them on rough side out because they have the same green on them that the sweater has. I have enjoyed wearing this sweater this week.

I still have tons of "pearl" buttons in my stash but there is always room for one more.

Happy October! Today is the first Monday of October! Here is a little pumpkin I made a couple of seasons back. It is some kind of chunky yarn that I started in a circle on the bottom. I used knit-in-front-and-knit-in-the-back increases. I think. Then, I increased the divisions between the segments with purl stitches? Maybe? No, I think maybe I dropped stitches after the segments came back together? I should have written it down somewhere. Anyway, I wove dark green yarn into the recessed cavities and made a stem. I stuffed it with orange tulle in case the stitches were too loose and the stuffing showed. The whole thing is about six inches in diameter.

I always wanted a job where I could read and then give everyone my opinion about what I had read. Another book I have reviewed can be found here.

Katharina Buss' Big Book of Knitting was printed in Germany in 1996. My copy is in English and has 240 pages of extremely well photographed samples. It shows the very basics but unlike other knitting books that are suitable for beginners, it still has something to offer the experienced knitter. It has cast-ons, increases, decreases, bindoffs, and all kinds of ways of doing some very advanced maneuvers. It shows several methods for sleeves, selvedges, joining pieces of knitting, and has an entire section devoted to stitch patterns. It is a reliable research resource. Sometimes I just pick it up to read and I always find something interesting to think about.

You can get it used from about $.80 to new about $14. If you have never ordered books from that big internet bookseller, let me warn you that the $.80 price for the book from an associated seller on their big site is NEVER as good a deal as paying the AMAZON price. The associated dealers make up their profit in charging exorbitant shipping.

If you do not have the book, get it. Get it in paperback and take it to an office supply or printing establishment and have them slice off the spine and put a spiral binding on it. You will be glad you did.

I hope I have linked the Quanah site to the words above. She has the pattern there but permission is not given for me to post her pattern. I hope it is permitted to show you the picture because I think it is worthwhile.

It is a pattern for a reversible or doubled hat. I picked nice, sober, sedate navy, charcoal, and brown yarns for the reverses of these that you see below which are Classic Elite Liberty Wool Print colorways Sunrise, Sunset, andTwilight.

I read THIS yesterday and I am moved to get some washable 100% merino and make a cap for a sailor. Both of my uncles on my mother's side were in the navy and I believe both of my husband's uncles on his mother's side also.

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About Me

I love the thrill of planning a new project and assembling exactly the right components. I work on dozens of projects at the same time. I accept this about myself. Finally. My pleasure is PROCESS. This pleasure is enhanced when/if there is a product...